Special Guests Invited for Tea at TEA FOR THREE, Beg. 6/12

Presented by Amas Musical Theatre, TEA FOR THREE: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty starring Elaine Bromka, written by Drama Desk and Lortel Award nominee Eric H. Weinberger with Ms. Bromka and directed by Byam Stevens, will welcome three very special guests for post - show discussions regarding the First Ladies, beginning June 12, 2013.

Special Guests Include:

Wednesday, June 12 following the 2PM matinee

Ron Nessen, President Ford's Press Secretary

Wednesday, June 19th following the 8PM performance

Kati Marton, renowned author of Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History.

Thursday, June 20th following the 8PM performance

Author and professor, Dr. Myra Gutin, an expert on the First Ladies and teaches a course about them at Rider Univ.

Friday, June 28 following the 8PM performance

Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld was Betty Ford's press secretary and author of the book, "First Lady's Lady"

Emmy Award-winning actress Elaine Bromka takes on three women who suddenly found themselves celebrities in politically tumultuous times: Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford. TEA FOR THREE offers a witty, intimate and thought-provoking perspective on the politics of love, devotion, and first ladydom, revealing the personal cost of what Mrs. Nixon called the "hardest unpaid job in the world."

Presented by Amas Musical Theatre (Donna Trinkoff, Artistic Producer ), Tea For Three began performances on May 30 and opened on Monday, June 3 and will run through June 29, 2013 at The 30th Street Theatre (259 West 30 Street). Tickets are $45 at www.teaforthree.com or by calling (212) 868-4444. Discounts for seniors, students and groups are available.

The inspiration for Tea for Three came about when Bromka starred opposite Rich Little in The Presidents, which she performed across the country and on PBS. Called upon to impersonate eight First Ladies, she ended up spending months poring over videotapes of the women. Studying nuances of their body language and speech patterns to explore psychologically why they moved and spoke as they did, she became more and more drawn in by their personalities. "These were women of intelligence and grit who suddenly found themselves in a fishbowl," Bromka observed. "I realized I wanted to tell the story from their point of view. And I wanted to explode myths. Pat was called 'Plastic Pat' in the press, for example, because she was always smiling. Look more closely at her eyes, though. There's nothing plastic about her. You see the eyes of a private, watchful survivor." Her collaborator, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award nominee Eric H. Weinberger, is the author of several Off-Broadway plays, including Wanda's World and Class Mothers '68. He and Bromka zeroed in on the three women, linking their stories by revealing each one at the threshold moment of the end of her time in the White House.

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